miercuri, 6 februarie 2008

Looking at European Architecture: a Critical View

Within the context of the 2005/2008 European programme known as gau:di (governance, architecture and urbanism: a democratic interaction), the Centre International pour la Ville, l’Architecture et le Paysage (CIVA) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) have developed a project to support the publication of a book of contemporary architectural criticism.During the last two years, an editorial committee chaired by Joseph Rykwert (United Kingdom) and composed of the experts Jean-Louis Cohen (France), Françoise Fromonot (France) and Spela Hudnik (Slovenia) has carried out a selection process with the aim of choosing one article for each country.

Prior to this, numerous contacts were established in each of the European Union countries with editors of architectural publications, directors of institutions, writers and experts. They were asked to submit two or three articles for the committee to choose from. The final selection of 27 texts is published in the various original languages and translated into English. . The introduction signed by the directors of CIVA and the RIBA is followed by 4 texts written by the chairman and the other three members of the editorial committee.

These articles express the personal opinions of the authors about the issues raised in contemporary architectural criticism and the way these issues are evolving within the European Union. At the end of the work, there is a list of publications specifically about contemporary architecture which have been issued by the seven partners of the gau:di programme (Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (France); Museum of Finnish Architecture (Finland); The Lighthouse (United Kingdom) ; The Architecture Foundation (United Kingdom); CIVA (Belgium); Fondació Mies van der Rohe (Spain); RIBA (United Kingdom).